A song of praise and confidence in God for the blessings of righteousness, judgments on their enemies, and favor to his people: their chastisement, repentance, and hope, 1-21.
1 In that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city. God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates so that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the LORD forever, for in the LORD YAHWEH is everlasting strength.
5 For he brings down those who dwell on high. The lofty city, he lays it low. He lays it low, even to the ground. He brings it even to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy."
7 The way of the just is uprightness. You, most upright, weigh the path of the just.
8 Even in the way of your judgments, O LORD, we have waited for you. The desire of our soul is to your name and to the remembrance of you.
9 With my soul I have desired you in the night. Indeed, with my spirit within me I will seek you early. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
11 LORD, when your hand is lifted up, they will not see. But they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people. Even the fire of your enemies shall devour them.
12 LORD, you will ordain peace for us, for you also have wrought all our works in us.
13 O LORD our God, other lords beside you have had dominion over us, but by you only we will make mention of your name.
14 They are dead, they shall not live. They are deceased, they shall not rise. Therefore, you have visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation. You are glorified. You had removed it far to all the ends of the earth.
16 LORD, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them.
17 As a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs, so we have been in your sight, O LORD.
18 We have been with child. We have been in pain. We have, it seems, brought forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance on the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 Your dead men shall live. Together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust, for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter into your chambers and shut your doors around you. Hide yourself for a little while until the indignation has passed.
21 For behold, the LORD comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth shall also disclose her blood and shall no longer cover her slain.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 26[➚]
[v.11] - Reference, Hebrews 10:27.
[v.19] - Reference, Psalm 16:10; Hosea 6:2; 1st Corinthians 15:4.